We begin by looking at the concept of institutional repositories within the broader context of digital libraries. ‘Digital libraries’ can mean many things, but we consider them to be libraries first and foremost, and built upon the enduring principles of information management which have lain at the heart of the practice of librarianship for hundreds of years. We look also at the significance of the qualification which defines the scope of this book – the institutional repository. Libraries are themselves repositories, and have always dealt in the management of repositories for their users. With libraries now routinely managing repositories of various types in digital format, what does it mean to qualify ‘repository’ with ‘institutional’?